Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Monday

Isabel Hardman

The sleaze row isn’t finished yet

Number 10 will have been relieved that the weekend did not bring new stories about Conservative MPs raking in lots of money from second jobs. There were still sleaze angles in the Sunday papers, including regarding the Prime Minister's own dealings, but the air seems to be going out of the story a little. The past two weeks has opened up a chasm between the 'red wall' MPs elected in 2019 and more traditional Tories The trouble is that this week brings a whole host of new chances for the row to blow up once again. There's the Liaison Committee hearing with the Prime Minister on Wednesday, which will include questions on 'propriety and ethics in government'. Labour also has an opposition day debate in the afternoon, arguing for a ban on paid directorships and consultancies for MPs.

Matthew Lynn

Shell’s Dutch departure is a vote of confidence in Brexit Britain

The City was meant to be hollowed out. Shortages would cripple the economy. And major multinationals would move their headquarters, listings, and all the wealth those create, to somewhere safely inside the EU’s Single Market. Some hardcore supporters of the UK remaining inside the EU made lots of predictions about the consequences of the decision to leave. And yet, one by one, they have failed to materialise. Now, oil giant Shell has said it will move its tax residency to London, a decision that could mean it ditches the ‘Royal Dutch’ from its name.

Julie Bindel

Women don’t ‘consent’ to their own deaths

A ruling by the Court of Appeal last week has further enshrined the notion that women can consent to their own death if the man responsible puts forward a defence that she died during ‘rough sex gone wrong’. In February this year, Sophie Moss, an extremely vulnerable woman suffering from a range of mental and physical health problems, was choked to death during sex by Sam Pybus. Although some press reports described the pair as ‘lovers’ there was nothing romantic about the relationship between the two. Pybus would occasionally visit Moss for sex, leaving his wife Louise Howitt asleep. There were no illicit candlelit dinners, no walks in the park, just sex with a woman often so drunk when Pybus turned up at her door that she would have been incapable of speech.

Steerpike

Macron and Barnier chase the nationalist vote

For centrists of a certain age, few names are more likely to tug the heartstrings than Emmanuel Macron and Michel Barnier. In the halcyon days of 2017, the two Frenchman seemed the epitome of all that was chic, calm and above all rational: the former a fresh-faced Élysée outsider who made moderation great again; the latter a silver-haired successor to the tradition of Talleyrand as the EU's Brexit negotiator. But four years is a long time in politics and both men have undergone something of a transformation. Plagued by protests and the pandemic, Macron has shelved much of his ambitious reform programme, embarking instead on populist crowd-pleasers as fears have grown over immigration and security. Ahead of next May's contest, he holds an average of 26.

Gus Carter

Terror threat level raised to ‘severe’

The Home Secretary Priti Patel has just announced that the terror threat level has been raised to 'severe' meaning that another attack is now considered 'highly likely'. The move comes after yesterday's explosion in Liverpool was declared to be a 'terrorist incident'. Speaking after a Cobra meeting, Patel confirmed that the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre had raised the threat level following the Liverpool attack.  https://twitter.com/spectator/status/1460185050797035525?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw The Home Secretary said that the decision had been taken because two terror attacks had been confirmed in the last month, the former being the murder of MP Sir David Amess.

Cindy Yu

Was COP a flop?

15 min listen

COP26 is now over, but was it a flop? Even Alok Sharma, the President of COP26, apologised on the last day for 'the way this process has unfolded', as he teared up when announcing the final agreement to phase down, rather than phase out, coal. On this episode, Cindy Yu talks to Fraser Nelson and Isabel Hardman about the lasting legacy of COP26. For Fraser, the summit was a mixed bag: 'I don't think that anybody is going to talk, in future years, about the "Glasgow declaration". But there are... some moves forward'. And Isabel points out the disappointment to Boris Johnson, for his own personal legacy: 'He then got to the end of the summit saying, well we've made a start, which is not something you're going to have on your legacy.

Ross Clark

Should Covid booster jabs be rolled out to the over-40s?

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has recommended that Covid booster jabs be offered to people in their forties, after they became available to the over-fifties earlier this year. But, as recently as August, the World Health Organisation opposed booster jabs. It said in a statement:  ‘In the context of ongoing global vaccine supply constraints, administration of booster doses will exacerbate inequities by driving up demand and consuming scarce supply.

Steerpike

Adonis rapped by Lords Standards Commissioner

Oh dear. It appears the Rejoiner movement has gone a bit People's Front of Judea. Andrew Adonis, the rampant Remainiac, has today been rapped by the House of Lords Commissioner for Standards over an undeclared directorship he failed to disclose on his Register of Interests. But who was the sharp-eyed snitch who tipped off the watchdog? Surely such shenanigans must have been the instigation of a dastardly Brexiteer, presumably funded with dark Russian money on the orders of Putin himself. Au contraire. Step forward whistleblower Dirk Hazell, Leader of the UK European People’s Party and a fellow ardent Europhile.

Steerpike

Double bubble for MPs’ passholders

Far from being a 'storm in a teacup' – in the famous last words of George Eustice – the Westminster sleaze scandal shows no sign of abating. As day 13 rolls around, Cabinet members Jacob Rees-Mogg and Grant Shapps are respectively facing questions about £6 million of undeclared loans and, er, spending taxpayers’ money on lobbyists fighting the government’s own plans to build on private runways. Surreal stuff. Few MPs have featured as much in the discourse around 'second jobs' as Geoffrey Cox, the baritone barrister who juggles his judicial jaunts with his duties in Torridge and West Devon.

Sunday

Steerpike

Boris COPs up his host city

And so COP26 ended, not so much with a bang, but rather a whimper. Alok Sharma's tears aside, there was a muted feel to the unveiling of Saturday's Glasgow protocol, at which countries agreed merely to 'phase down' rather than 'phase out' coal. That sense of anticlimax was only enhanced by yet more strike action at the conference close, with the RMT union ensuring the cancellation of all sleeper trains back to London – just two days after the Foreign Office admitted Liz Truss took a domestic flight to the summit after the cancellation of her train. https://twitter.com/RMTunion/status/1459145830921871361?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Still, Boris Johnson has never been one to let facts get in the way of a good story.

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Rayner promises to apologise to Boris

COP26 eneded last night after two weeks of intense haggling. A pact was approved in principle, but a last minute change by India and China drew most of the attention. The final wording now refers to a ‘phase down’ of coal, rather than a ‘phase out’, as many climate activists had hoped. Alok Sharma, the President of COP26, joined Trevor Phillips from Glasgow, and set about defending the deal as secured: https://twitter.com/RidgeOnSunday/status/1459833888088510475?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Sharma: ‘I’ve invested an enormous amount’ in COP26 Despite this bullishness, one of the most memorable moments from COP26 will surely be Sharma's tearful apology after he conceded the coal compromise.

Saturday

Steerpike

Watch: Alok Sharma in tears as COP concludes

Well that's the end of COP26. After a fortnight of selfies, speeches, pledges and promises, the eco-jamboree has tonight wrapped up, with Western nations expressing their 'profound disappointment' after China and India secured a last minute watering-down of the commitments on coal. British negotiators wanted a 'phase out' of unabated coal; instead the two Asian powers succeeded in substituting it for the term 'phase down.' There's anger and sadness tonight from European and vulnerable nations, with the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres declaring that the 'collective political will' was 'not enough to overcome some deep contradictions.

Steerpike

Coming soon: Matt Hancock’s best-seller

Parliament is in the mire with sleaze aplenty. Whether it's double jobs for six figures or foreign jaunts sparking domestics: MPs have been hitting the headlines this week for their various indiscretions, undeclared or otherwise. With politics in peril and cynicism all around, which champion of integrity can step forth to remind us of politicians at their best, of a better time, when statesmen governed with integrity? Cometh the hour, cometh the Hancock. Undaunted by past indiscretions, the womanizer of West Suffolk has returned to the fray today to nobly remind us all of his many virtues. The libidinous legislator is reported to be writing a comeback account of 'How I Won The Covid War' on his 'heroic' role in the UK vaccine campaign.

Mary Wakefield

Mary Wakefield, Lloyd Evans, Tanya Gold

17 min listen

On this week's episode, we’ll hear from Mary Wakefield about the pattern of misandry in modern media. (00:48)Then Lloyd Evans on the British tradition of the pub theatre. (07:19)And finally, Tanya Gold on getting drunk on tiramisu. (13:55)Produced and presented by Sam HolmesSubscribe to The Spectator today and get a £20 Amazon gift voucher:spectator.

James Forsyth

Will levelling up split the Tories?

15 min listen

Since the cabinet met on Thursday to map out their levelling up agenda, we take another look at what this ambiguous slogan really means and how important it is for a Tory majority in the next election. Can we compare the UK levelling up to other places? Gove recently referenced 15th century Florence. But what about German reunification? As James Forsyth says in the episode ’I think on levelling up and on reducing regional inequality, it is very hard to find a successful playbook to go after’. Max Jeffery talks to James Forsyth and Andrew Carter, the CEO of Centre for Cities.

Patrick O’Flynn

Does Rishi Sunak really understand red wall voters?

Rishi Sunak thinks Boris Johnson goofed badly when he conspired to upend Commons standards procedures. And he agrees with his red wall colleagues that this appeared to place the government on the side of a privileged elite. That is certainly the standard interpretation of his comment this week that the government needed to do better – and indeed unattributable briefings by an ally say that he regarded the episode as a ‘mistake’ which should be acknowledged by someone of cabinet rank. But if red wall Tories are tempted to regard Sunak as the true keeper of their flame then I suggest they think again. Because while Johnson has indeed gaffed, the Chancellor has also recently announced a decision that may well imperil their re-election prospects.

Friday

James Forsyth

Shock poll gives Labour six-point lead

Tory nerves about the effect of the sleaze scandal will only be increased by a poll out in today’s Daily Mail showing Labour ahead by six points. This is a big turnaround from the last ComRes poll which had the Tories three points ahead. It is the biggest lead Labour has had since Keir Starmer became leader. It suggests that this self-inflicted wound is doing real damage to the Tories. Now, this is obviously only one poll and we will have to see whether this shift is sustained. A YouGov poll in this morning’s Times has the two parties level on 35 per cent each. But that same poll has 60 per cent of voters saying that the Tories are ‘very sleazy and disreputable’.

Max Jeffery

Can British troops fix Poland’s migrant crisis?

17 min listen

British troops have been deployed to the Polish border as part of a ‘reconnaissance’ mission, as Poland tries to stop migrants crossing from Belarus. Belarus’s president, Alexander Lukashenko, backed by Russia, is flying Syrian, Iraqi and Yemeni citizens into his country and encouraging them to cross the border into Poland. As the United States turns away from Europe and the Middle East and towards Asia, does Britain think it can to take its place?Meanwhile, Britain is having its own migrant crisis, with 1,185 people crossing the English Channel by boat yesterday – a record number. It brings the number of people crossing the Channel this year to more than 23,000, three times higher than the total last year. Why can’t the government get a grip on this?

Kate Andrews

Eighteen months of inflation is not ‘transitory’

The big central banks have been insisting for months now that the rise in inflation is temporary, and will fade once the great awakening of the world economy starts to settle down. The Federal Reserve, Bank of England and the European Central Bank have looked on as inflation has overshot their forecasts. But when the opportunity to tame it with an interest rate hike approaches, the banks pass it up, reiterating instead that it is ‘transitory’ — the monetary equivalent of ‘it’ll be fine’. With inflation now at a 30-year high in the United States — 6.2 per cent — it’s starting to look like a pretty big bump. But should we worry? Is this just a glitch of lockdown unwinding itself?